Onalaska Care Center

On top of being a first rate facility overall, this nursing home also performed well in our inspections category, where it earned an A+. Few nursing homes fared as well in this category. We weigh several aspects of a nursing home's inspection report in calculating these inspection scores. One key factor is deficiencies. You should keep in mind that the severity of these deficiencies is arguably more meaningful than the quantity of deficiencies, as some deficiencies end up being quite minor. This particular nursing home had just a single deficiency on its inspection report and it was not one deemed to pose a threat to patient health or safety. Even some of the best nursing homes receive an occasional ding on their inspection report.

This facility also excelled in the area of nursing, where it received a grade of A. Few nursing homes performed better in this area. Nursing ratings are heavily correlated with levels of nurse staffing. This facility provided 0.4 hours of nursing care per resident per day. Finally, our nursing grades also factor in quality-based assessments, such as avoiding major falls. This facility performed well in this area. Avoiding major falls is typically a good indicator that a facility has reliable quality controls in place. Major falls can typically be avoided if more nurses aids and better safety protocols are in place.

We also want to emphasize the fact that this facility received an impressive grade of A in our short-term care area. Short-term care scores are crucial for people requiring rehabilitation. Rehabilitation generally requires more skilled nursing. Skilled nursing means a vast spectrum of services, ranging from registered nurses to physical and respiratory therapists, as well as other types of therapy. Fortunately, it appear that this nursing home employs registered nurses. Not every facility employs these types of nurses. On the other hand, based on the information they provided, it does not look like the facility employs physical therapists. The last metric we considered in this category is the number of residents who were able to leave the nursing home and return home. We discovered that 5.4 percent of this nursing home's residents returned home.

The final category we analyzed proved to be this facility's worst area. Nevertheless, even its lowest point would be a highlight for most facilities. We gave it a strong grade of B in our long-term care category. When nursing homes receive a grade in this range in this category it generally means it's well-staffed and is a quality place to live on a permanent basis. One of the statistics we considered on top of nursing hours was vaccines. This facility provided the pneumonia vaccination to 98.75777 percent of its patients. Vaccination is a proven method to minimize unnecessary deaths for the elderly population. Clearly, this facility is doing something right in this area as it also excelled at keeping its patients out of the hospital. In fact, it had less than one hospitalization per one thousand long-term resident days, which is an impressively low figure.